We’ve all changed over last two years

I wonder. Will we ever be able to think of the date Sept. 11,without automatically flashing back to the horrific events of twoyears ago?

Five years, 10 years, maybe 50 years from now, will the imagesof jumbo jets crashing into the twin towers of the World TradeCenter still pop into our minds anytime we hear the date, or forthat matter, a reference to 9-1-1.

Will our first thoughts on this and future Sept. 11s be thethousands of people killed by four acts of hatred and the heroeswho risked and in many cases lost their lives trying to saveothers?

Some dates would seem to be seared into the memories of anyonewho lived through the events that took place on those days: Dec. 7,1941; Nov. 22, 1963. Everyone remembers where they were when theyheard about the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the assassination ofPresident John F. Kennedy.

Advertisement

But Jay Leno probably wouldn’t have to go too far on one of his"Jaywalks” to find people who have no idea what happened on thoseinfamous dates. It is certainly too soon for anyone old enough tobe aware of what happened two years ago today to possibly haveforgotten, but will that be the case 40 or 60 years from now?

I expect not. The very date has come to define the event, ratherthan the other way around. People talk about the bombing of PearlHarbor and the death of JFK. But 9-11 has become shorthand for theterrorist attacks that shocked and irrevocably changed theworld.

A popular question as we’ve approached the second anniversary ofthose attacks is whether the events of Sept. 11 have changed ourlives? Of course they have. They had to. Certainly some liveschanged more than others, but all of us have been affected, whetherwe realize it or not.

And not just in obvious ways such as having to take off ourshoes in airports.

Advertisement

We won’t likely ever feel as safe as we did before Sept. 11,2001. We may have the strongest military in the history of theworld and vigilant law-enforcement agencies, but we still have toworry that some other madman or group of such will find a weak spotand plunge us again into grief.

Many of us are more patriotic. Some are more cynical. Some lovemore fiercely, give more of their time to help others, hug theirchildren harder or pray more intensely.

We may go to work or to school just as we did before thecrashes. Our daily routines might seem no different. But in variousways, some subtle, others not-so subtle, we go on knowing thatnothing can ever be the same after watching the symbols of ouronce-felt invincibility -- the towers and the Pentagon -- gocrashing down.

That 9-11 has come to symbolize those images makes it easier toremember. And we must remember, not only those so brutally killed,but how we came together afterward to demonstrate what makesAmerica great.